Samsung has released ChatOn for the iPhone, a messaging app aimed to compete with the likes of iMessage and WhatsApp (TMA Review). First released for Android phones several months ago, this multiplatform chat client supports group chat and more.

ChatON brings together all of these methods of communication, expression, and sharing in one place. 1) ChatON supports multi platforms and devices. Users can chat freely through ChatON. – Currently, ChatON supports iOS, Android, Bada, Samsung Feature and will support Blackberry, Window mobile, web soon. 2) 1:1 Chat, Group Chat, Broadcast, Drawing Message, Picture, Video, Voice, Location, Contact, Calendar. 3) Using ChatON, create your own unique drawing message by hand drawing etc. 4) ChatON provides group management feature for easy group chat 5) ChatON provides Interaction rank which informs you how often you chat with your buddies. 6) For every chat room, you can easily see all sent images and videos in a Trunk.

If you feel there’s room for yet another chat app on your iPhone, ChatON is free to download and reviews on iTunes have generally been favorable. Check out the video demo after the break.

Ongoing’s Tim Bray wonders how Samsung did it. They managed to launch the Galaxy line of Android smart phones around the world on almost every carrier of note. That IS a significant feat, especially considering Apple’s comparatively meagre iPhone 4 rollout, but it is insignificant if you put it into perspective. Firstly, adapting Android to any piece of hardware is easy. And if you own pretty much every piece of mobile hardware as Samsung does, it is even easier. Secondly, Samsung’s revenues put it in the top ~30 of the world’s largest GDP’s. Samsung are richer than most countries in the world. They are by far, the largest conglomerate in the world. How hard is it for them to get their grungy phones to carriers across the world? For a company that dips its enormous fingers into almost every country (legal or not) and still has the resources to personally attack ordinary citizens, not hard at all(TWSS).

They’re building the tallest building in the world; getting a measly piece of plastic and glass into the hands millions of customers is easy. Of course, Samsung also have a knack for screwing up design, mucking up UI, and forgetting to slip chargers or cables with their phones. So, while Samsung’s Galaxy may by numbers become the biggest Android name out, it will more likely than not, line the bargain bins as another piece of shoddy work. Don’t look to Samsung to show the world how to make a good Android phone, only look to them to show how to make the most circulated, cheap piece of plastic with an ‘Android’ label.

I was walking past the lovely espresso machine in my wife’s semi-lovely work place: Institute Pasteur Korea, today, and saw the ironic JoongAng Daily (a bloody big paper) headline: iPhone 4’s D-day beats expectations. Indeed, the iPhone 3gS has been a hit in the political island of the Republic of Samsung South Korea since last November when South Korea finally allowed smart phones into the country. The same 2009 also allowed the first non-Korean handsets in, severing Oprah-thick layers of corporate sabotage. Korea is beset by anti-competitive practices. While Joongan Daily and its corporate supporters may not like that a foreign company is making waves in the gaming nation, the general populace is all atwitter about the iPhone. The news of course is that in less than 13 hours, pre-orders for the iPhone 4 reached 130 000 units.

The ever-resourceful @DaringFireball got me onto a clever fellow by the name of Horace Dediu who runs asymco, a quirky but engaging mobile-focused blog. He does a lot of his own research, loads his site with great articles, and gets clicks. This one just happens to be his research on the average selling price (ASP) of mobile phone competitors: Nokia, Apple, LG, Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericcson, and RIM. The results are sour grapes for most of the companies; only Apple and RIM come away without looking foolish.

After living in South Korea for nigh on 8 months, I have come to expect the littlest of innovation and highest of domestic prices from the company whose GDP is larger than Venezuela’s. Despite outing a silly “me too” mobile phone app store, Samsung may have found something in this newer software venture. Starting with their 55-inch 9000 LED models, all 40-inch and larger TVs will be able to download apps. Then, it will move to their Blu-ray players, and ‘more’.

As I mentioned before, neither LG nor Samsung have a clue how to design mobile phones, but the ever fickle SKT are harbouring thoughts of cranking out Android products from either company rather than selling Apple’s iPhone. On the one hand, Android is a very good platform which I respect; it would make little sense for SKT to pass up the business opportunity afforded by the clever OS. But on the other hand, in serving an LG or Samsung Android, the telecom mogul will only further entrench itself in the quagmire of a stodgy Korean-only oligarchy.

This year has been extremely fruitful for new operating systems targeted at mobile devices. And now, surprise surprise, Samsung, one of THE largest electronics manufacturer in the world and number two mobile phone manufacturer in the world, have issued a press release about Bada – their new mobile OS.

When the iPhone comes to these shores in November, it will bring a lot of extra baggage with it. In truth, it is only one of a handful of smart phones which will debut in Korea – a category of phones that may have trouble taking off. Obvious restrictions on data, packages, and other general internet tom-foolery have kept such devices at a wary distance from the tech-savvy nation, but all of that may soon change – in fact, it must.

The jump from 32GB to 64GB in the newer iPod touch models means more than just a new-found ability to squeeze the rest of your audio library into the palm of your hand. It means that some poor sod from pathetically nourished countries like American, China, Germany, and Japan will have to go without – flash memory that is. Even the world’s biggest electronics company whose GDP outweighs the country of Argentina is carefully counting its chips. Samsung will be shipping fewer memory modules to non-Apple companies in the coming months, and in anticipation of the China Unicom/Apple deal which will bring the iPhone to China, Apple are sure to be more voracious than ever.

The world’s largest electronics company who owns more hotels, newspapers, car companies and almost as many mobile phones as any other technology company, will open an app store to compete in the dime-a-dozen ‘me too’ online software delivery methods for mobile phones. Apple have had a good yearlong head start, but Samsung have models, celebrities and the biggest newspapers in the land at their bidding.